Ximena’s Groningen Guide!

Okay! So I have been putting off writing this for a loooong time, but finally I have sat down to write my Official Groningen Guide, so you can avoid going to the shit places and have an epic time in Groningen!

Alright I will go through it in sections to give you a brief all-round overview of things that I consider relevant to your overseas student life. Oh, also I would recommend viewing this in Google Chrome, as a lot of hyperlinks I have included take you to the website in Dutch so its quite handy having Google Chrome to translate it for ya.

COFFEE/ LUNCH:

Once I discovered Black and Bloom, all other attempts at Flat Whites I had experienced in the city couldn’t even compete. This is the BEST STUFF AROUND, and the owner really knows what he is talking about when it comes to coffee (if you get him started talking, he will tell you about all his experiences overseas in coffee competitions and what not). The food is ok, but the coffee is a real winner and the atmosphere of the cafe is also just darn pleasant. So nice to just come in and sit and read a book or something when its snowing outside. Also really close to Kroy Vintage, which is a great little vintage shop packed to the brim of well-priced vintage goodness (if you have time to hunt through everything, that is).

Bagels and Beans is also a really great place to pop into for a cheap and delicious lunch; lots of great tasting bagels to choose from and all pretty healthy too. The coffee isn’t the best in my opinion, but the bagels are definitely more than enough of a reason to visit here. It’s always pretty busy too, so I guess I’m not the only one to think its a place worth visiting.

Puur! Natural Food was conveniently right around the corner from my house, so I would sometimes come here to utilise the free wifi to do my uni work and munch on one of their delicious sandwiches. Their coffee is relatively ok, just make sure you ask for a double shot and you’ll be fine.

SHOPPING:

Sostrene Grene was a new shop that opened when I was there, and I was well glad it did. Great place for presents, cheap homewares, random stuff that you have never considered a necessity until you have laid eyes upon it in Sostrene Grene.

Star Dust is a cute little shop in Groningen with both new and second-hand wares on sale. It is relatively well priced, which is something pretty essential as a student. The shop has a cool vibe, whenever I went there great music was playing and  I was always surrounded by well-dressed shoppers. The shop has now moved since when I was in Groningen, but I’m sure it will still be just as great if not better in its new location.

Mama Mini was the BEST ever shop in existence when I first arrived in Groningen. Although the flat I moved into was ‘furnished’, there were still essentials from home that I felt were missing – things as simple as a dish rack, a bedside table, a toaster, etc. All of these I got from Mama Mini for dirt cheap prices, it was amazing. The only issue was transport, I managed to go back and forwards a few times on my bike/ walking because I didn’t live too far away, but I do know they have bikes available for free with big carts on the front that you are able to borrow (there just aren’t many though, as they were all in use when I was there, so a good idea would be to go to Mama Mini maybe early in the morning when there aren’t many other people needing to borrow it at the same time).

GROCERIES:

Luckily I lived right next to the Vismarkt, so mostly every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday I would head here to get some fresh vegetables, fish, cheese, bread or pasta. A lot of the time produce is cheaper here than it is at Albert Heijn (the main supermarket chain in the Netherlands), and there are also quite a few organic stalls here if you are into that kinda thing. Definitely recommend coming earlier in the morning when it is less busy and you have a fuller range of produce to choose from.

Jumbo is a supermarket chain in the Netherlands that is not quite as common as the more prevalent competitive chain, Albert Heijn. Although the Jumbo supermarkets are situated more on the periphery of the city, a lot of the produce on offer is cheaper than at Albert Heijn, so if you are living near enough to one then I would definitely recommend it as your supermarket of choice.

 Aldi is also a cheaper supermarket worth looking into to getting all sorts of basic groceries, toiletries etc. at a much cheaper price than AH. This is mostly because they don’t put the products onto a shelf, they just cut open the boxes and stack them on top of each other. Sure, not the most ‘appealingly merchandised’ supermarket, but a great place to keep in mind if you are living in Groningen on a budget.

NIGHTLIFE:

OK, so quick disclaimer – a large proportion of Groningen student night life occurs in the multiple beach-themed or snow-themed clubs that play top 40 on repeat or atrocious ‘remixes’ which mainly consist of the DJ turning down the music and shouting “yeah!” into a microphone, BUT that is why I am here – to hopefully guide you away from this misery and into some of the more interesting venues in town.

Warhol was probably one of the places I frequented the most, and as you can imagine some of the decor reflects the iconic American pop artist the bar was named after. A wide mix of tunes played here, mostly alternative but sometimes more mainstream; I did notice some nights that the set lists of tracks were totally at random (think 90’s rock immediately after a funk track, or something) but thats just me being nit-picky and clearly not drunk enough if I was busy analysing the music playing. Mostly nights at Warhol would pick up at around 2 or 3am, and would only really taper off around 5 or even 6am (for Kiwis reading this, thats pretty normal for most of European night life; they stay out LATE man), so yeah don’t bother heading in at midnight because chances are you’ll be the only one on the dance floor.

Another place I would highly recommend for something a bit different was De Spieghel. Unfortunately I didn’t go here as much as I would have liked to, because I discovered it kind of late in my exchange, however the few times I did go here I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It’s just a really great place to come and have a drink with a group of friends with awesome music (often live) playing in the background, mostly with an awesome funky jazz vibe (genres vary though, so if you are specific about your music taste then I would check their Facebook page).

Even though it isn’t directly ‘nightlife’, I think I should probably mention Eurosonic Noorderslag, which is a massive music conference and festival that happens in Groningen every January for 4 days. Unfortunately I was a bit slow on the uptake for this one so ended up on missing out on tickets to see some artists I liked, so if you are on an exchange during this time its definitely a good idea to check out the schedule well in advance. Oh and also tickets sell out pretty quick (I think it was a matter of hours this year) so if you are interested in going then make sure you are at a computer as soon as they go on sale to avoid missing out.

RESTAURANTS:

I went to Hemingway’s when my mum came and visited me in Groningen, and yep, you probably guessed correctly who it is named after. The Cuban-style cuisine is in reference to Ernest Hemingway’s travels to Cuba, as are the many pictures decorating the walls. Good place to come to if you are a fan of sharing lots of small dishes with friends, and its not overly expensive either.

Napoli is probably the best pizza Groningen has to offer. Not the most authentic, and their policy in regard to water is not the greatest (I think last time I went there you were only allowed a glass of water if you had bought a glass of wine or beer, so I sat there pretty fuming with my coke and taking secret sips of water out of my drink bottle), BUT also pretty inexpensive so a good place to head if you want a cheap meal.

De Kleine Moghul was definitely my favourite restaurant in Groningen, we went there a few times to enjoy a variety of their different delicious curries on offer. Not overly fatty and greasy, and also pretty huge so if you got a curry to share and maybe a few sides or starters then that would be ample for 2 people.

I don’t know why I only went to Thai Jasmine once, because that one time we went it was certainly not disappointing. We had really delicious fish cakes and also some nice Thai curries. Wasn’t the cheapest meal I’d had in Groningen, but definitely a nice venue with super delicious food on offer.

TRAVEL:

Ok so I can probably say a few brief things about travel here – number one, if you are keen on travelling in the weekends and semester breaks, then I would definitely check Ryanair and Easyjet regularly for deals (I went to Milan one weekend from the Groningen airport for something as ridiculously low as 30 euro). Skyscanner is also a good price comparison website, but sometimes not all the deals come up here so definitely good to not solely rely on browsing here.

Piece of important advice number two – traveling on trains in the Netherlands is super expensive for international students, as sadly it is only domestic students that get to ride for free and international students instead have to pay a full adult rate. HOWEVER something that might ease this financial stress is regularly checking some of the main chain retailers, such as Kruidvat, Blokker and Hema, who often have special deals on cheap train tickets you can buy. What I did was stock up on ones from Hema, and managed to use them all before I went. If you don’t use them all though, don’t fret – they are quite easy to sell online before they expire (further details down below in ‘helpful websites’ section).

OTHER STUFF:

Ok so here are a few other miscellaneous things I think I should mention. I’m not your biggest, err, weed connoisseur, however when I did feel like a bit of the bud I went around the corner to The Clown, who sell cheap and quite strong pre-rolled joints for about 4 euro.

Also, because I’m a bit of a freak I decided I wanted to keep up with my extra curricular activities whilst I was over there, namely being running and having flute lessons. The Muziek School set me up with a fantastic flute teacher over the period of time I was there, and I also got in touch with the middle distance coach at Vitalis and ended up training with them a couple of times a week. So yes if you have strange extracurricular desires similar to mine when you are over there, those are a few starting points I guess!

HELPFUL WEBSITES:

Finally I thought I would put a few links to helpful Facebook pages and websites I used often when I was over there:

Free Housing Announcements:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/162781577095263/?fref=ts

For Sale in Groningen:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203402449673669/?fref=ts

Daytickets Groningen (where you can buy and sell cheap train tickets):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/263316833791525

Secondhand bikes in Groningen:

https://www.facebook.com/secondhandbikes.groningen

Studybooks in Groningen:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/305416326155705

Also a really helpful website that answers a few FAQ’s about living in Groningen:

http://www.justletmeknow.info/facilities/

And also an online shop where I got a toaster and a few textbooks from quite cheaply:

http://www.bol.com/nl/index.html

Anyway I hope this was somewhat helpful if you are about to go on your exchange. Or, if you are random reading this, then I hope you are able to take something from this other than laughing  at this slightly odd account of my Groningen discoveries last year! Thanks for reading!

Finally – here in Groningen!

Groningen.

I suppose that it is probably good that I waited a few weeks before I made this post, as I think if I tried to write it 1 week- 2 weeks ago then it probably would not have painted a very pretty picture of where I am staying for the next 5 months –  Visa confusions, housing palavas and general what-the-fuck-this-culture-is-very-different-to-New-Zealand situations have all taken their toll on my psyche over the past few weeks, to a point where I didn’t even get out of bed one Sunday (alcohol definitely did not play a part in that whatsoever). But I think this week I’m now realising, as ignorant and naive as it sounds, what it is like to actually DEAL with shit that happens in life…. Instead of just telling my parents that something has broken or gone wrong etc. and then the situation would magically be fixed, over here I actually have to deal with things from start to finish, and MAN IS IT TIRING. And EXPENSIVE.

But anyway, enough of my privileged-white-girl complaints – I’m sure you are all wondering what this place is actually LIKE. Well, it kinda looks like a mini-Amsterdam, with slightly less canals, but a whole lot more bikes. As a large percentage of the city are students at one of the two universities in Groningen, bicycles are the easiest, cheapest way to get around (although I wouldn’t say safest – the frequency of bikes that clunk loudly is slightly alarming, and also people peddle at such a speed that I’m convinced they are all in training for some big bike race that I don’t know about yet). The whole city is basically flat as well, therefore only a very slight burning sensation occurs in the quads after a fifteen minute bike ride, as opposed to not being able to walk for a week after trying to bike anywhere in Auckland (for those that don’t know the place, there is a ridiculous amount of hills). I am also located quite centrally in Groningen, which has proved to be extremely convenient – there is a food market called the Vismarkt that occurs every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday around the corner from my flat, which provides a much larger and tastier range of fruits, veges, fish, pasta, bread and  cheese (SO much cheese) than the local supermarket, and its not that much more expensive either.

I have also met some great Dutch and other International students here in Groningen, many of whom are shocked to hear that the temperatures here at the moment are only mildly warmer than the NZ winter, and as equally shocked that I ditched the large amount of beaches back home for the perpetually brown waters of Dutch canals (which I don’t plan on swimming in any time soon). I do however have a great mix of cultures in my class (which, as a communications class, is unsurprisingly 90% female), and I am in awe that most of them are learning and speaking in a language that is second to them – I think I have it pretty darn easy just being able to speak my native language. I am still however trying to ahh comprehend the contrast in Hanze University to my university back home, AUT. Instead of each subject being completely separate from the others and assignments being handed out in a linear, logical-like fashion, each class here at Hanze relates to the others and we have also been given all our assignments in one go, which has confused me quite a great deal. Therefore I am doing what any logical person would do in this situation and going to Berlin for the weekend to see Radiohead. YEYYYY!!!

Anyway, thanks for reading – photos below!! xx

A park that I pass through everyday getting to uni (called Noorderplantsoen, I think)

Typical intersection, with more bikes than cars.

Casual stalker photo of some Dutch people getting into their car.

I forgot to mention that my street (Schoolholm) is right next to the redlight district of Groningen. As seen in this photo. Lol.

Bikes and bikes and more bikes parked at uni.

My university, Hanze.

Venice, Budapest, and aaall the bits in between, PART II

Memento Park with my niece, Taylor.

Timeeeee for part II! I am currently writing this whilst sitting in my bedroom in Groningen (the city in the Netherlands where I am doing my exchange) and I have already been here a week, but never to fear I shall recap that week in the NEXT blog post. Sigh. It all banks up so quickly.

Anyway!

After the Top Deck tour finished, I had a few days back in London again where I hung out with one of my favourite big sisters, Kerri (who isn’t really my sister, she just stayed with us as a homestay for a few years when we were both at high school; however judging by the amount we argued you would have thought we were sisters). Awesome to see her again after not seeing her for over a year, lunch was a bit of a shock though as going back into pounds again you have to double what you spend to convert it back to New Zealand dollars, as opposed to halving it and adding that to the original price which is what I did with euros (i.e. 4 euro becomes approximately 6 NZ dollars, 10 euro becomes 15 NZ dollars etc). If that all makes sense. Anyway, unfortunately I didn’t make it early enough over to the Tate Modern in the afternoon to see the Damien Hirst exhibition, but I did have my flight over to Kosovo the next day to see my friend Brilant to look forward to!

For those that don’t know Brilant, he is a friend I met at school but now lives back in his home city, Pristina, which is the capital of Kosovo. It was really great seeing him again since he left NZ earlier this year so we had lots to catch up on; Pristina was also a refreshing contrast to a lot of the other travelling I had done, as there were hardly any tourists in sight. Everything was ridiculously cheap as well, like at most restaurants you could get a meal and drink for 6-8 euro, and a twenty minute taxi was only a few euro (he grumbled at the thought of paying a whopping 4 euro to get home one night so we walked instead).

I was also coincidentally in the country for the end of the Muslim holiday Ramadan, so on the Sunday we ventured out of the city into the countryside of Kosovo (in a taxi for 50c) to visit Brilant’s family on his mothers side. I think I should mention the contrast in greeting/ meeting culture between New Zealand and generally most places in Europe: New Zealand is very awkward, avoid-contact-at-all-costs-ill-shake-your-hand-if-I-have-to sorta thing, whereas many places in Europe (e.g. Kosovo) are quite the opposite – there is definitely no shortage of kisses and hugs. So I was almost quite overwhelmed at this wee family gathering, as Brilant’s mother had no less than 9 siblings, many of whom were all there and also had their own families with them!… In the end it was quite comforting though, just how welcoming and accommodating his family was. When we were sitting on the deck looking out at the front yard it actually really reminded me of the many Christmas’ up at my Aunt’s place in Warkworth with all of my own family from New Zealand.

After Kosovo I headed over to Istanbul for a half-day tour of the city during my stopover (where I was almost peer pressured by a sales person to buy a 200 USD rug… he even gave me an apple juice, I pulled the poor student card though and I managed to get away). In the afternoon I headed BACK over to Budapest (apparently going via Turkey was the cheapest flight?!) to visit my half-sister, Kirsten, her Hungarian husband, Attila and their beautiful 8-year-old daughter, Taylor.Their apartment was in the old Jewish Quarter of the city, so just around the corner there was one of the popular ‘ruin bars’, which are basically bars in Hungary that have  been converted from abandoned lots and apartments during the war period.There were also lots of interesting shops in the area, such as Massolit books and cafe (who in fact serve rather delicious flat whites), Siberia (a design-your-own shoe shop) and also an awesome print and design shop called Printa (who ALSO serve flat whites!).

Outside of our area though there were plenty more great things to see, such as the ‘What is Hungarian?’ exhibition at the contemporary art gallery (with a far-right wing demonstration happening in the square out front when we went… scary), the House of Terror and also Memento Park, which had a lot of fascinating/ kinda intimidating sculptures from the Communist period (see pics below). We also took a visit to the pools on Margaret Island (the island in the middle of the Danube between Buda and Pest) on a day where it was disgustingly hot and humid with absolutely no wind, so we took a well deserved cool off in the pools for a few hours. Spotted here were a few “pregnant men”, according to my niece, which I thought was a pretty hilarious/ brutally straight-up observation. Also here was the “big kids slide”, which in retrospect was not a good decision as it resulted in an excessive amount of water in my ear drums. Love that.

Anyway WordPress tells me that I’m almost at a thousand words so I think thats all for now. Oh actually if you want to check out the creative genius works of both my friend Brilant and my sister Kirsten then click right here for Brilant (and here for his music) and here for Kirsten. Aren’t I lucky to have such talented hosts. Anyway, photos below! Enjoy!

Pristina

Walking in the countryside of Pristina.

Istanbul

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Taylor and Kirsten in Budapest

Biking around in Budapest

Tay with her Tej moustache (Tej is milk in Hungarian)

The Food market in the ruin bar during the day on Sunday

Memento Park

Memento Park

Venice, Budapest, and aaall the bits in between, Part I

Where I’m sitting currently at a restaurant in Budapest, post consuming a delicious burrito and listening to Elvis-like versions of songs like ‘Candy Shop’ and ‘Crazy Right Now’ playing on the loudspeaker. 

Ok, so over three weeks later and I have FINALLY sat down to write another blog post. Whooops. Oh well, I’m sure it’s really a good thing, as it means that I’ve been so incredibly busy with my travels that I haven’t had even a moment to spare to write a blog post. Or maybe it just means that I’m lazy…. Anyway. I will do my best to summarise three and a bit weeks without writing a thesis for you guys. So! I last left off in Florence, which was one awesome week I have to say. Although the only Italian I really remember now are things like uscita (exit), nuovo (9) and ragazzi/ ragazza (boys/ girls) – all really useful things that will help me out with any future conversations in Italian I’m sure. But anyway, after Florence I headed over to Venice to have a look around by myself for a few days before joining up with a 9-day tour that headed back up to London. Honestly I was really glad to have those few days in Venice by myself to start with, as it enabled me to spend a good 4 hours in the Peggy Guggenheim museum – probably my favourite museum of the whole trip. I managed to listen to every single audio tour, and it was also air-conditioned to the perfect temperature, which was heavenly when compared to the disgustingly humid conditions outside. Ahh. I also bought a beautiful Venetian mask from a place called Tragicomica, although for the life of me I can’t remember what it looks like (because as soon as I purchased it it was wrapped up safely in bubble wrap so it wouldn’t get damaged during the remainder of my trip). I do have a sneaking suspicion that it has diamond shaped triangle things on it though. Maybe. Oh well I’m sure I will get a nice surprise when I open it next week!… Anyway I met up with the tour group at a place called Camping Jolly, which aside from its cold showers and air-conditioning stuck on full blast was a surprisingly nice place. Met a few nice people from my tour group and also other tours like Busabout; it was cool to be in a more social environment again as I had seriously been quite the nana up till that point (sightseeing for long hours during the day makes you tired okay…). From Venice we headed over to Munich to see Dachau, the concentration camp (which was thoroughly depressing) and to consume some German beer (to cheer us up after Dachau). We weren’t there for long though, as the next morning we were up early off to our next stop, Prague, in the Czech Republic. A beautiful place, although I felt it was a bit overrun with tourists and souvenir shops, which honestly ruined the experience a little bit. Like you don’t really want to go to a place just to see gimmicky postcards and ashtrays and mugs and people with cameras constantly in your face…. sorta ruins the point of travelling really doesn’t it! But who knows, maybe I just didn’t go to the right places when I was there. We did go to an interesting absinthe bar though on the first night that served up all sorts of interesting absinthe dishes, like absinthe salmon (?) and of course a large variety of different absinthe shots. Not sure of the name of the one I ordered, but it certainly was not very pleasant (it actually wasn’t as bad as I expected though, as generally I am the biggest wimp when it comes to shots). Anyway, not sure if it was this wretched shot that did it or my lack of immune system but on the morning of leaving Prague I woke up with an awful vomiting bug that had been going around the bus… joyful. Hence I was seated near the toilet on the bus so I could dart to it whenever I could (which was generally every fifteen minutes or so for four hours). YAY. Don’t know why I’m saying this on my blog, but I guess its the reason why I don’t really remember much of the next stop of the tour (the Rhine Valley in Germany), as basically as soon as we arrived I got into bed and went to sleep for 10 hours until we got back on the bus again and headed over to Amsterdam. Thankfully by the time we got there I was basically fully recovered, so I had enough energy to be referred to as the ‘happy lady from New Zealand’ by the crazy man at a Dutch shoe and cheese factory we went to (which I suppose was better than the name ‘sexy hairy’, as given to one of the boys on the tour by the lady in the cheese workshop.. not kidding). Anyway, also had enough energy to take a trip to a shop called ‘Happy Feelings’ down the road from our hostel (which is pretty self explanatory really) and then head out to a sex show that evening with the tour. Aside from being a tad vulgar at times, it was actually hysterically funny, especially when they got some of the boys from the tour on stage whose faces basically got pummeled by fake boobs and butt cheeks. My trip to ‘Happy Feelings’ before the show probably made it a bit funnier too. Anyway this is turning into quite a long entry and my computer is dying so might have to do this in two different parts, and try not do the second part 3 weeks later! Please take a look at my photos on my Tumblr though as that is where I have put all my extra photos that I didn’t put on Facebook: http://ximenachristine.tumblr.com/

Thanks for reading ragazzi and ragazza, next post shall be up asap!! xxx

Au revoir France, buongiorno Italia!

Ok I have 15 minutes left to write this post so please my dear, eagerly-awaiting readers (i.e. mum and dad) forgive me if the spelling and grammar sucks as I am too poor to afford to buy more internet at the internet cafe I am at right now. Anyway!! So I am currently in Florence, Italy, which is beautiful but soooo hot, being a weak New Zealander who is used to temperatures 30-32 degrees max, it is a bit of a contrast for me thats for sure. I have just been to the San Lorenzo markets, where I was basically verbally attacked with ‘good prices’ for simply showing mild interest in a few of the leather bags on display and then attacked even further with ‘better prices’ when I started to walk away. So I decided to take shelter in an internet cafe and actually use a real keyboard instead of the infuriating touch screen of my iphone, which corrects every single Italian word to some bizarre suggestion, like ‘due mom’ for Duomo for example. It is a beatiful place though, I am currently attending a language/ art history course at a place called Scuolo Toscana so I get to see all the awesome historical chapels and galleries with the art history in the morning, like we went to see the Sante Croce yesterday and then we went to see the Uffizzi Gallery today where I saw a few awesome Leonardo and Michelangelo pieces to name a few!!… The language is also very interesting, albeit rather hard as things don’t directly translate from English to Italian and also objects are either masculine or feminine so you adjust the word accordingly (I don’t know if this is an incredibly ignorant thing to say, but isnt that a little bit sexist !? Like doctor is masculine and then coffee maker is feminine?! Really??). Anyway, last week I was in Paris and Avignon, both also very intersting places but in different ways – Paris because well, it’s PARIS and Avignon (a little town in the South of France for those that don’t know) because of its labyrinth like cobblestone streets filled with street performers and posters, as we were there coincidentally for the last two days of the Avignon festival which is apparently quite a prestigious performance festival in France. In Paris we met some great girls from all over the world in our hostel, which for 20 NZ a night turned out to be a pretty good deal considering how expensive everything is in Paris!! Also I have to mention our hilariously eccentric host called Raphael, who was so awkwardly humourous we couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not. Anyway I have 1 minute and 40 seconds remaining soooo gotta wrap things up, hopefully I can update this with photos later on my iPhone but if not I will update them as soon as I can to my Tumblr or Facebook!! Ciao!
photos below: inside the Notre Dame; outside the palace of Versailles because we were too poor to go inside; me outside the Moulin Rouge with my eyes closed; a street in Avignon; the Fiume Arno canal in Florence and the Ponte Vechio bridge; the ceiling of the Palazzo Vechio; Il Duomo; and going out of chronological order because the Tumblr app won’t let me rearrange the pictures, back to rooftops of Avignon.

End of London and the First Night in Paris.

Ok so I am now currently in France, which is the beginning of my 3-week long camera-less-laptop-less-tiny-bag-carrying period (oh the woe of first world problems). So the forth coming blog posts will probably be short ish, as I will be writing them all on my phone; I will however try to keep the tumblr up to date with pictures from my phone as much as possible (but no guarantees!). Anyway the last two days in London were great, took a trip over to Brick Lane on Friday to peer at some semi-expensive vintage shops (fortunately however more reasonably priced than the shitty Oxford Street shops)! I then finished with a brief tour of the British Museum on its late night, accidentally setting off a brief censor alarm when I reached out to touch a Mayan plaque (it wasn’t clearly marked I swear). Saturday I went to wander through the beautiful Kew Gardens with my cousin Jo, who was a member which meant she got me in for free (yay!) and then we just went home so I could start a long night of micro packing, which was a lot harder than I first imagined as I’m not naturally a light packer AT all. But I managed to squeeze it all in though and find my way to the bed and breakfast in Paris, which for 20 euro a night is a damn good deal considering how expensive everything is in this city. My friend Lucy arrived a few hours later so we went out for a wander and picked an Italian restaurant for dinner, which although had a menu mostly in French we thought it was quite a safe sort of standard option for our first night. Anyway should be off to sleep soon ish so we can get away early in the morning, hopefully more pictures to come soon!
Also unfortunately my phone doesn’t seem to want to do captions under my pictures, so from memory the top few pictures are from Brick Lane, then underneath Kew Garden, then another Brick Lane picture, then the British Museum.

Summary of three days because I am slack at this blogging thing.

Ok so it turns out keeping this blog up to date is a bit harder than I imagined, as in the morning I sorta want to get up earlyish and beat all the crowds but then at night I basically crash in my bed as soon as I get home. So its 9am on Friday at the moment, hopefully can do this relatively quickly and then be on my merry way over to East London to do a bit of shopping and more sight seeing.

So!! Tuesday I planned on looking around the back streets of Soho/ Covent Garden… unfortunately didn’t really turn out that way, ended up getting lost amongst the DSLR-carrying-backpack-wearing tourist crowds in the Piccadilly area. I did manage to see an Impressionist exhibition at the Royal Academy, which was rather cool – however it was a bit distracting hearing gaggles of middle aged women loudly discussing the ‘voluptuousness’ of Renoirs figures and other sorts of inane analyses whilst standing directly in front of the picture frame, so any quiet viewing of the collection was unfortunately rather impossible.

After lunch I consulted my phone app called “Banksy London Tour” (nerdy I know) and headed over to West Central Street in hope of finding some Banksy artwork, but unfortunately after wandering up the semi-dodgy alleyway 3 or 4 times there was no Banksy to be seen. I did spot this Invader artwork instead though, a picture of which I posted on my Tumblr here.

The following day I went on a day trip to Oxford to see my two favourite McGlashan twins, Pat and Jono, who I know from NZ but who happened to be over here at the same time as me. It was nice just to have some company whilst sightseeing for a change, as being by yourself does get a bit lonely after awhile and also quite difficult for security reasons, as everywhere you go you need to take all your stuff with you!! And I also now actually have some people I know in my photos instead of just randoms, which is a bonus. But anyway, Oxford was just as stunning as my Mum had described it, with miles of photogenic buildings and cobbled streets. Unfortunately we got a bit lost so didn’t quite make it to the university, but I had quite a delicious burger and cider at a traditional English tavern that was hidden down an alleyway so that definitely made up for our lack of orientation.

The next day I got up a bit earlier to take a look around the National Gallery, where I spent approximately four hours gazing at pieces from the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Van Gogh and Monet. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take photos, so instead I bought about a zillion post cards of the pieces that I liked which ended up costing a small fortune but thats ok! I then took a wander down to the River Thames, where I thought of the genius idea of hiring a bike so that I could cover ground more quickly whilst still seeing the sights of London. However, this genius idea soon developed into one of my more average ideas, as I realised immediately after I had paid that I was wearing a skirt and also that no helmets were provided. A mild panic attack ensued, as I envisioned myself being hit by one of London’s crazy cab drivers whilst simultaneously flashing hordes of innocent bystanders. But I managed to pluck up some courage and get on a bike, as I had paid a whole pound to rent it out and it wasn’t going to go to waste. Fortunately as I was cycling I realised London’s cab drivers aren’t so crazy after all, most of them slowing down and giving way to me; one even yelling out of their cab window if I ‘was ok’, so clearly I must have looked somewhat terror-stricken throughout the duration of my cycle. But I did eventually manage to find Buckingham Palace and then take a tour through Hyde Park, before heading home and collapsing on my bed from complete and utter exhaustion.

So that small essay just about sums up the past three days, heres a list of a few other things I’ve seen and then some photos following:

1. Someone being arrested in Oxford (this was in fact the first thing I saw after getting off the bus, talk about getting a great first impression of a place)

2. A Banksy piece seen post-cycle yesterday (photo below)

3. A billboard for the ‘Rock of Ages Musical’… Really!?! Was the film not bad enough?!

4. The London Eye + Big Ben + Parliament + Buckingham Palace all seen in one afternoon – whatsup London’s number 1 tourist!

More photos will be put on my Tumblr later on today when I can be effed. Thanks for reading!

Pat and Jono in Oxford.

Oxford.

Oxford Bridge of Sighs.

Fashion McGlashan and his man bag.

Banksy’s ‘Shop til you Drop’ in Central London.

The National Gallery.

Cycle around Hyde Park.

 

Welcome to my travel blog! Plus things seen so far in London.

The beautiful interior of the department store, Liberty.

I decided that keeping a public written record of my trip would be the easiest way for friends and family to keep up-to-date with my travels, as writing and re-writing lengthy, descriptive emails gets a bit tiring after a while! I will also have a Tumblr account which I’m currently in the process of getting started (i.e. when I can be bothered connecting my camera to my computer) to publish extra photos or videos I may have taken, so that this blog is more about the written entries as opposed to being bombarded with zillions of pictures.

Anyway! I’m currently in London, staying in Acton at my cousin Jo’s apartment. It is a bit after 9am, and I have been awake already for 3 hours (oh the glory of jet lag!). Yesterday I caught a train to Perivale to go to the Tesco shop there, which for those NZers that don’t know is basically like Pak n Save on crack, with a food section, electronics section, pharmacy and mobile phone store all rolled into one. I went to the one in Perivale as not all the Tesco’s have mobile phone sections and I needed to get a sim card for my phone – I think its safe to say that that is probably the first and last time I will ever visit Perivale (the Tesco’s and the train station seemed to be the main features of the suburb). I then gladly hopped onto a train and headed into central London, getting off at Oxford Circus amongst the masses of tourists all out to get cheap deals at the clothing stores spread along Oxford Street. I’m embarrassed to say that I spent no less than two hours inside the 5-story Topshop, ogling at the seemingly endless variety of clothing, shoes, make-up and accessories, and spotting even a few cafes on some levels. After all of that I ended up just getting a pair of shoes, as unfortunately when I converted all the prices in my head to NZ dollars everything didn’t seem so cheap at all, especially when all the dresses were made out of polyester and manufactured in China! Unfortunately this appeared to be a common trend with all the clothes on offer down Oxford Street, so sadly I feel as though I had a slightly wasted afternoon raking through racks of over-priced Glassons gear amidst hoards of pushy females and impatient shop staff. So I’m looking forward to going to slightly less touristy areas today, possibly down side streets of Soho or Covent Garden, undecided yet as a lot of places I want to see are all in walking-distance or at the very most a short tube trip away. Heres a few photos I’ve taken on my phone so far and also a short list of oddities spotted on my travels up til now:

1. Someone shopping in TopShop in their pajamas, complete with a dressing gown AND slippers

2. 3 H&M’s within 1 kilometre of each other in and around the Oxford St area

3. Every driver coming up to a corner stopping to let pedestrians go first – not so much in the centre of London, but this never happens in Auckland!

4. Public transport that ACTUALLY arrives on time (again, this is a rarity in Auckland)

Anyway thats it for now folks, check back later and hopefully I will have another blog post and my Tumblr up and running! Chur!

Shoes purchased from Topshop. 

Liverpool Street Station.

Kingly St.